HDP says Iraqi attack on Kirkuk 'unacceptable'

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said the Iraqi offensive Monday to capture the Kurdish-majority city of Kirkuk amounted to an invasion and was 'unacceptable.

"The Iraqi government should stop its attempt to invade Kirkuk, and diplomatic channels should immediately be employed," the party's headquarters said in a tweet, urging dialogue between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Region.

Turkey's second largest opposition bloc also warned against the prospects of a regional war that could stem from Kirkuk where Iranian-backed sectarian militias have entered along with the federal government forces.

"Seizing the will of the peoples of the Iraqi Kurdistan through military means ignites the fuse of a new regional war," said HDP, in defense of Kurdistan Region's peaceful referendum last month on independence from Iraq.

A lawmaker from the HDP, Adem Geveri, in an interview with Kurdistan 24 expressed sorrow over Baghdad's use of force in response to democratic demands.

"Baghdad government today is attacking the Kurds through dirty deals and dark Iranian proxies. It wants to renew [former Iraqi dictator] Saddam Hussein's massacres against the Kurds," Geveri said in an interview in Ankara.

He called on the western world, the United States and the European Union, to stand up to what he called "a dirty organization," the Iranian-supported Shia Hashd A-Shaabi militias also known as PMF.

"All parties at odds in the Middle East can come together when it is about the Kurds. The Kurdish people in all parts of Kurdistan should not leave [Kirkuk] alone," he said.

Another Kurdish MP, a member of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Galip Ensarioglu criticized the Iraqi attack.

"This is not in Iraq's interests. Such attitude is incited by Iran, the MP representing the Diyarbakir Province said.

Ensarioglu, whose many statements come in contradiction of Erdogan's government, emphasized that it was Kurdistan's Peshmerga forces who protected Kirkuk and its people when the Islamic State (IS) group attacked in 2014.

“Hashd Al-Shaabi militias are engaging in massacres. They are a terrorist group. The move by that terror group [in Kirkuk] means chaos," he said.

The Turkish government had earlier in the day announced its support for the Iraqi government and said it was ready to cooperate with Baghdad.

Editing by Ava Homa